Conveyors, including slip conveyors are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,164,436, 6,955,256, 7,185,754, 8,857,601, 7,228,957 and 8,727,104, as well as U.S. application Ser. No. 13/846848.
The slip conveyors described in the above listed USA patent cases have various means by which product is delivered from the conveyor to further conveyors or machinery located beneath the conveyors. The mechanisms are reasonably complex. Accordingly, they suffer from the disadvantages that they are expensive and difficult to service and clean.
Described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,119,849, 6,378,688 and 8,561,788 are linear (slip) conveyors in which the trays are reciprocated longitudinally, and are provided at their downstream end with a gate that is operable to deliver product from the tray. The trays are merely reciprocated longitudinally, with gates rotated between a conveying position at which product is conveyed from one tray to the next tray via the gate assembly, and a second position at which product delivered to the gate is allowed to fall through the gate for delivery to the machinery or conveyor below.
The linear conveyors of the above three USA patents suffer from the disadvantage that they are complex. This makes them expensive to manufacture and difficult to service. They are also difficult to clean.